Najam Talks to Boston Herald on Trump’s Taiwan Call
A president-elect of the United States talking on the phone to the recently elected president of Taiwan, despite the United State’s very long-standing “one-China” policy is, according to Dean Adil Najam, “a big story.”
Speaking to the Boston Herald shortly after the news of the phone call between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen became public, Dr. Adil Najam, the inaugural dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that China would consider this an affront and it would leave policy makers in Taipei, Beijing and Washington D.C. scratching their heads.
According to Najam, the most charitable conclusion that the Chinese could come to is to focus on the technicality that, in fact, Donald Trump is not the President of the United States just yet. Until January 20, 2017, he is just another citizen, although not an ordinary one. However, it is unlikely that the Chinese would take such a view, Najam says. The Boston Herald quotes him as follows:
“In China, it’s clearly crossing a line. … There will be reaction and it will not be positive.” China’s response could take the form of a diplomatic reprimand via a strongly worded statement, Najam said.
The question, of course, remains whether the phone call was another faux pas by the U.S. President-elect or a signal of a real policy shift from the Trump administration. Najam was of the view that if it is the later than it needed much more of a national policy process to precede it, possibly including Congressional consultation.The Boston Herald story goes on to say:
The U.S. created a “one China” policy in 1979 when it shifted recognition of the Chinese government from Taiwan — viewed by the communists as a runaway province — to Beijing.
Najam said such a policy shift, if that’s what Trump is signaling, would be on the same lines as the U.S. opening relations with Iran or Cuba and would warrant a national conversation, not a single phone call.
The full story can be read here.
Adil Najam is the Dean of the Pardee School and a Professor of International Relations. His areas of expertise include diplomacy and international negotiations. Read more about him here.